1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a method for the formation of a functional film, particularly a semiconductive deposited film which is useful for uses such as semiconductor device, photosensitive device for electrophotography, electronic device such as optical input sensor device for optical image inputting device, etc.
2. Related Background Art
In the prior art, for functional films, especially amorphous or polycrystalline semiconductor films, individually suitable film forming methods have been employed from the standpoint of desired physical characteristics, uses, etc.
For example, for the formation of silicon deposited films such as amorphous or polycrystalline non-single crystalline silicon which are optionally compensated for lone pair electrons with a compensating agent such as hydrogen atoms (H) or halogen atoms (X), etc., (hereinafter abbreviated as "NON-Si (H,X)", particularly "A-Si (H,X)" when indicating an amorphous silicon and "poly-Si (H,X)" when indicating a polycrystalline silicon) (the so-called microcrystalline silicon is included within the category of A-Si (H,X) as a matter of course), there have been attempted the vacuum vapor deposition method, the plasma CVD method, the thermal CVD method, the reactive sputtering method, the ion plating method, the optical CVD method, etc. Generally, the plasma CVD method has been widely used and industrialized.
However, the reaction process in the formation of a silicon type deposited film according to the plasma CVD method which has been generalized in the prior art is considerably complicated as compared with the CVD method of the prior art, and its reaction mechanism involves not a few ambiguous points. Also, there are a large number of parameters for the formation of a deposited film (for example, substrate temperature, flow rate and flow rate ratio of the introduced gases, pressure on the formation, high frequency power, electrode structure, structure of the reaction vessel, speed of evacuation, plasma generating system, etc.). Since such a large number of parameters are combined, the plasma may sometimes become unstable state, whereby marked deleterious influences were exerted frequently on the deposited film formed Besides, the parameters characteristic of the device must be selected for each device and therefore under the present situation it has been difficult to generalize the production conditions.
On the other hand, for the formation of the silicon type deposited film to exhibit sufficiently satisfactory electric and optical characteristics for respective uses, it is now accepted the best to form it according to the plasma CVD method.
However, depending on the application use of the silicon type deposited film, bulk production with reproducibility must be attempted with full satisfaction of enlargement of area, uniformity of film thickness as well as uniformity of film quality, and therefore in the formation of a silicon type deposited film according to the plasma CVD method, enormous installation investment is required for a bulk production device and also management items for such bulk production become complicated, with a width of management tolerance being narrow and the control of the device being severe. These are pointed as the problems to be improved in the future.
Also, in the case of the plasma CVD method, since plasma is directly generated by high frequency or microwave, etc., in the film forming space in which a substrate on which a film is formed is arranged, electrons or a number of ion species generated may give damages to the film in the film forming process to cause lowering in film quality or non-uniformization of film quality.
For an improvement of this point, the indirect plasma CVD method has been proposed.
The indirect plasma CVD method has elaborated to use selectively the chemical species effective for the film formation by generating plasma with microwave, etc., at an upstream position apart from the film forming space and by transporting said plasma to the film forming space.
However, even by such a plasma CVD method, transport of plasma is essentially required and therefore the chemical species effective for the film formation must have long life, whereby the gas species which can be employed are spontaneously limited, thus failing to give various deposited films. Also, enormous energy is required for the generation of plasma, and the generation of the chemical species effective for the film formation and their amounts cannot be essentially placed under simple management. Thus, various problems remain to be solved.
As contrasted to the plasma CVD method, the optical CVD method is advantageous in that no ion species or electrons are generated which give damages to the film quality on the film formation. However, there are problems such that the light source does not include so much kinds, that the wavelength of the light source tends to be toward UV-ray range, that a large scale light source and its power source are required in the case of industrialization, that the window for permitting the light from the light source to be introduced into the film forming space is coated with a film on the film formation to result in lowering in dose on the film formation, which may further lead to shut-down of the light from the light source into the film forming space.
As described above, in the formation of silicon type deposited films, the points to be solved still remain, and it has been earnestly desired to develop a method for forming a deposited film which is capable of bulk production with saving energy by means of a device of low cost, while maintaining the characteristics and uniformity which are practicably available. Particularly, in the case of the film formation of a semiconductor film of p-, n- or i-type conduction while enhancing the doping effect, the degree of the above requirement is high. These are also applicable for other functional films, for example, semiconductive silicon type films and germanium type films such as silicon nitride films, silicon carbide films, silicon oxide films as the similar problems which should be solved respectively.